Experimental analysis on solar water heater integrated with Nano composite phase change material (SCi and CuO)

Abstract

This work contributes to the improvement of the thermal energy storage capacity of an all-glass evacuated tube solar water heater by integrating it with a phase change material (PCM) and a phase change material (NCPCM) for nanocomposite. During the experiments, paraffin wax as PCM and a paraffin wax nanocomposite with 1.0 mass per cent of combination of SCi and CuO nanoparticles as NCPCM were used. Via real-time experimental measurements on the all-glass evacuated tube solar water heater integrated with built-in thermal energy storage, the results were obtained, operating under thermosyphonic flow. Three separate cases have been considered, namely, without PCM, with PCM, and with NCPCM. The test procedure involved observing the total variation of temperature in the tank water from 6.00 am. To 6 a.m. Of the following morning. For all three situations, performance of the device was analyzed using energy efficiency, exergy quality, and hot water supply temperature during the next morning. Examples of the investigation are tank water temperature at 6.00 a.m. After one full day of operation, PCM and NCPCM improved significantly to 53 °C and 56 °C respectively, whereas for the case without PCM it was 45 °C. The energy efficiencies for the three cases were found to be 33.8 percent, 38.3 percent, and 41.7 percent, respectively, and the system's exergy efficiencies were estimated to be 1.78 percent, 2.18 percent, and 3.23 percent, respectively, for without PCM, PCM, and NCPCM, respectively. It was also shown that the thermal conductivity of paraffin wax by the diffusion of SCi and CuO nanoparticles was significantly increased to 22.53 per cent. In summary, this indicates that the incorporation of PCM and explicit dispersion of SCi and CuO nanoparticles in NCPCM had significantly improved the system's thermal performance.